A memorial service will be held tomorrow for Ellen Meyer, an East Bay philanthropist who was one of the original "Rosie the Riveters" in World War II and became CEO of an important San Francisco corporation.

She died of cancer at her Berkeley home on January 28 at age 85.

Mrs. Meyer ran Fred Meyer of California, then the leading manufacturer of fireplace equipment in the United States, for five years after her husband's death in 1970.

She and her husband came to the United States as refugees from Nazi Germany in 1938, and both worked in the Sausalito naval shipyard, where Mrs. Meyer became a skilled sheet-metal worker. They began their own business with $1,600 in shipyard earnings.

With an anonymous donation of $1,500, Mrs. Meyer was the first individual sponsor of Berkeley Oakland Support Services, now a multimillion-dollar program helping homeless people.

She served as board member and coordinator of volunteers of the University Art Museum at the University of California at Berkeley. She also was active in the East Bay Jewish community, particularly at Congregation Beth El, where she was an officer and trustee for many years. She was awarded the Israel 35th Anniversary Award from the Israel Bond organization for her work on behalf of the state of Israel.